Breeders' Cup World Championships Entries

Updated: 10/29/2018

The 2018 Breeders' Cup World Championships will be held on November 2nd and 3rd at Churchill Downs. Pre-entries closed on October 22 with a record 221 horses pre-entered, including 51 from overseas. Trainer Aidan O'Brien pre-entered the most with 18 and Coolmore led the owners with 20 pre-entries. There are five former or defending champions pre-entered: Mendelssohn (2017 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf), Oscar Performance (2016 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf), Roy H (2017 TwinSpires Breeders' Cup Sprint), Stormy Liberal (2017 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint), and Talismanic (2017 Longines Breeders' Cup Turf).

Final entries closed on Monday, October 29, with 191 horses entered including 28 international entries. The post position draw was held in downtown Louisville at Equestricon in the newly renovated Kentucky International Convention Center. The maximum field size is 14 for all races except the Juvenile Turf Sprint which has a max of 12, and 12 of the 14 races are oversubscribed at this point. Each race can have also-eligibles listed at entry time, who can draw in if there are any scratches by Thursday morning.

The Classic drew a field of 14 plus 2 also-eligibles and is headed up by 5-2 favorite Accelerate who drew post 14. He comes in off a three race win streak, including the Gold Cup at Santa Anita (G1), the Pacific Classic (G1) at Del Mar, and the Awesome Again (G1) at Santa Anita.

The Breeders' Cup will have a total of 14 Championship races (thirteen are Grade 1)spread over two days of racing with $30 million in purse money on the line. New in 2018, Friday November 2nd is billed as "Future Stars Friday" featuring all the Championship races for juveniles on the same card, including the inaugural $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (ungraded) and highlighted by the $2 million Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1). Saturday November 3rd will have nine races for older horses headlined by the $6 million Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) at 1 1/4 miles. The Championships will be held at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, for the ninth time. Tickets will probably sell out early, but if you still want to attend and don't wish to pay a premium on the resale market, there will be general admission for both days. Note that unlike at the Kentucky Derby and Oaks, the infield is not available to general admission.

Below is the list of races with conditions, purses, and eventually post times for both days. The post times and race order are now set and should not change again. Click the race names to get links for info specific to that race including a list of the the top entries with link to a profile for each horse with lots more info.

Breeders' Cup Weather - Check out the latest weather forecasts for the Breeders' Cup at Churchill Downs. Looks rainy and cold right now.

Review: Crushing the Cup 2018 - by Jim Mazur and Peter Mallett. An invaluable tool for trying to unlock the mysteries of handicapping the Breeders' Cup races at Churchill Downs. Updated for 2018, this is their 27th anniversary edition and seventh for Churchill Downs.

The Breeders' Cup Championship Day - The official page for the Breeders' Cup championship races. Just about anything you need to know about it: results, video clips, and race calls for past years, and eventually nominations, entries, and results.

Free Prep Replays - for major prep races in the Breeders' Cup Challenge. The ones with camera logos have video available.

Breeders' Cup Supplemental Entries - The old official policy on supplemental entries plus all the supplemental entries and how they fared, mostly it was a losing proposition. There are no more supplements now, only late nominations making it impossible to track since the change.